Sunday in London

I love London more every day.  In fact, I could live here.  As much as I have enjoyed visiting places like Istanbul, Rome, Paris, Dublin, Vienna and others, I see them all as wonderful places to VISIT.  That said, I have often said I could live in Munich, Germany, and I mean it, but now I think I could also live in London.  I really love it here.  I love the people, I love the food, I love the beer (but I still think German beer is the BEST), and I love the history.  Moreover, the city is far more beautiful than I imagined it would be.  Gorgeous, in fact.  I also love that in the few days we have been here we have already found a favorite pub, and when we go there, the Polish bartender recognizes and pours me my favorite lager without me having to ask for it.  That doesn’t even happen in Chattanooga!

Another wonderful experience we had today was being part of a sung Mass for the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord at the Westminster Cathedral.  Westminster Cathedral is the Mother Church for the Catholic Church community in England and Wales.  The site on which the Westminster Cathedral stands originally belonged to the Benedictine monks who established the nearby Westminster Abbey and was purchased by the Catholic Archdioceses of Westminster in 1885.  In 1977, as part of her Silver Jubilee Celebrations, the Cathedral was visited by Queen Elizabeth.  This was highly symbolic since it was the first visit of a reigning monarch of the U.K. to a Catholic Church in the country since the Reformation (when the Church of England broke away from the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church).  On May 28, 1982, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in the Westminster Cathedral.

 

After Mass, we caught up with Tony’s cousin Ann and her husband Ralph for a river cruise on the Thames Clippers Riverboat.  While the weather here is more unpredictable than even Chattanooga weather, we were fortunate that we had a pleasant and sunny ride on the river.  After the wonderful ride on the river, we had lunch on the river at Frankie & Benny’s.  This place is an “American-style New York Italian Restaurant Chain in the U.K.”  Frankie & Benny’s serves what people in the U.K. believe is American food, but they serve is U.K. style.  It is really no different than how American restaurants serve U.S. versions of Italian food, French food, Indian food, etc.  We had everything from spaghetti to fish & chips to salmon cakes to hamburgers.  All good!

After lunch, we visited the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College.  The Painted Hall is often described as the “finest dining hall in Europe.”  Designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1698, it was originally intended as an eating space for the naval veterans, known as Greenwich Pensioners, who lived at the Royal Hospital for Seamen.  On completion, it was found to be “far too grand” for everyday use, and quickly became one of London’s first tourist attractions.  Respectable visitors were admitted for a fee and often hired Pensioners to give them guided tours.

 

From the Painted Hall, we moved to St. Paul’s Chapel the Old Royal Naval College.  Also designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the Chapel was the last major part of the Hospital for Seaman to be built.  The naval veterans who lived here (the Greenwich Pensioners) were required to worship in the Chapel on a daily basis.  It remains a place of worship and still hosts regular Sunday services.  The buildings that comprise the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich provided some of the scenery that was “supposed” to be France in the recent movie “Les Miserables.”

 

 

Our next adventure was the Royal Maritime Museum, but the highlight for us was the Royal Observatory.  The Royal Observatory Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time.  Before the introduction of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in 1972, Greenwich Mean Time was the global time standard and was a standard astronomical concept used in many technical fields.  The Royal Observatory is also home to the Prime Meridian of the World – where the longitude is defined to be 0°.  The Observatory is also home London’s only planetarium, the Harrison timekeepers and the UK’s largest refracting telescope.

 

 

After hiking up the steep hill to the Royal Observatory and then managing to get back down, we caught a monorail back to our Tube stop with Ann and Ralph.  It’s funny, but Tony has not seen Ann in three decades, and I have just met Ann and Ralph on this trip, but I feel as though I have known them forever.  We have enjoyed our time with them so much, and we sincerely hated having to part ways. 

 

As we headed back to the Kings Cross part of London to return to our hotel, we thought about what we have noticed about this wonderful city so far.  One thing that is funny is that it is relatively easy to spot tourists.  Remember, in the UK, people drive on the left side of the road.  Many in the group have struggled to look the right way before crossing the street.  At many crosswalks, you can look down, and there will be painted directives on the street these little directives that remind pedestrians “LOOK RIGHT” or “LOOK LEFT.”  Nevertheless, when we are tired or hurried, it is easy to give into habit and look as we might in the States.  Tony almost got run over last night when we looked the wrong way before crossing the street. 

That said, however, we are often blessed because people here are just so nice, polite and friendly.  I have heard for so long about what a large and cosmopolitan city London is, so, candidly, I did not expect people to be too friendly.  I have been stunned at just how nice and helpful everyone here is.  Tony and I can be standing on the sidewalk, wondering aloud about something, and complete strangers will repeatedly stop and offer help.  I have never seen anything like it.  When we have accidentally walked out in front of traffic, drivers will always stop and wave us through.  It’s just wonderful. 

Londoners do not just drive on the left, but they generally walk on the left, too.  You can spot tourists, though, because we tend to walk on the right.  It gets very confusing sometimes when we are in Tube stations because some Tube stations are set up so that everyone can move to the left (including escalators), but then others are set up so that  people can move to the right.  I sometimes just don’t know what to expect.

The weather here changes more than Chattanooga weather.  We might go in someplace when it is warm and sunny, and then come out an hour later, and it is cold and rainy.  We can then go in some other place with it still cold and rainy, and come out and it is still misty but warm.  It seems like it is wacky like this every day.

Something else I really love about London is the mix of people.  I have never been in a city where the mix of languages and cultures seemed so diverse.  I know we think America is a melting point, but London truly feels like a melting pot of ethnic groups.  I just adore the mix of cultures here.

Tony and I capped off the evening with a later dinner at a nearby pub.  We ran into Adrianna Eder, Sylvia Zdunek (who has been studying in Finland this semester), Brittain Ayres, Kenly Ayres, Betsy Chapman, Rachel Brosius, and Alex Roorda.  They plan to visit Windsor tomorrow, but I am not sure what Tony and I plan to do yet, although I know our whole group has tickets to see “King Lear” tomorrow night.

 

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms reading this!

Joanie (and Tony)